Children of the Jacaranda Tree

by Sahar Delijani

I was deeply moved by the portrayal of two generations of Iranian citizens at the mercy of a tyrannical political regime. A story of humanity and suffering at a time of unrest, the author paints a bleak picture of the punishment metered out to anyone daring to voice an opinion. The story is intimate; following first the parents and then their grownup children as history repeats itself with the bittersweet aftershocks felt for years to come.

Extract

They could not forget even if they wished to for the sake of the children, for the future. It conditioned every step of their lives and every decision. It was always right there behind their eyelids. All they had to do was close their eyes to see it, to relive it. All they had to do was speak about it once, a question, an innocent comment over dinner, for her mother to grapple with nightmares all night long, for her father to smoke cigarette after cigarette in the backyard, swaddled against the cold of late hours of the night. And so they knew: the future was marred long ago. And so were the children.